Katie Overy

Human musical behaviour is a joyous activity that has captivated hearts and minds for centuries. Music educators have often claimed that musical learning can have a range of benefits for children, from increased personal and social well-being to enhanced cultural understanding and even academic achievement. Recent experimental studies in the fields of music education, psychology and neuroscience are beginning to add weight to such claims, with a growing body of research identifying the extent to which the brain engages with musical stimuli, and the potential effects of musical training on brain function and structure.

In this talk I will begin by discussing the joyfulness of musical behavior and its apparent importance in human experience. This will be followed by a summary of recent interdisciplinary research into the neural basis of musical processing, including evidence that musical training can affect certain aspects of brain function and structure. I will then outline four different experimental studies conducted in Edinburgh, each of which investigated a different aspect of musical learning.

The first study (Ludke et al. 2014) provided the first experimental evidence that singing can facilitate short-term paired-associate phrase learning in an unfamiliar language (Hungarian). The second study (Moore et al. 2017), a Diffusion Tensor MRI study demonstrated that 4 weeks of auditory-motor training can lead to significant structural changes in the arcuate fasciculus, a white matter tract connecting auditory and motor regions of the brain. This is a pattern of results consistent with activity-dependent increases in myelination and thus has important implications for understanding how extensive musical training might affect brain structure. The third study (Almeida et al. 2017), a sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) study, explored the process by which pre-school children dynamically interact with a musical beat in the absence of a prescribed movement action. Results revealed that children made a wide range of different types of movement response, with each child showing a strong preferred movement and almost all children showing strong, biphasic, periodic motion. The fourth study (Moore et al in preparation) showed that dyslexic children taking part in a specially designed 15 week Musical Activities Programme (Overy 2008) made significantly greater improvements in literacy skills that those in a control music listening programme. This provides evidence of the differential effects of specific types of musical training on language and literacy skills and indicates that rhythm-based auditory-motor activities may be particularly beneficial for dyslexic children.

In conclusion, this selection of studies reflects a much wider body of research which is beginning to show that, while the rich, complex nature of musical experience cannot be captured in a single experiment, it is possible to design individual, interdisciplinary studies that provide fascinating insights into human musical intelligence.

Key Questions

1. Are some kinds of musical learning or activity “better” for the brain than others?
2. What are the potential advantages of taking an interdisciplinary approach to music research?

Recommended Reading

• Ludke, K, Ferreira, F & Overy, K. (2014). Singing can facilitate foreign language learning. Memory and Cognition. 42 (1), pp. 41-52.

• Moore, E, Schaefer, R, Bastin, M, Roberts, J & Overy, K. (2017). Diffusion tensor MRI tractography reveals increased fractional anisotropy in arcuate fasciculus following music-cued motor training. Brain and Cognition. 116, pp. 40-46.

• Overy K. (2008). Classroom rhythm games for literacy support. In: Westcombe, J, Miles, T & Ditchfield, D.(Eds). Music and Dyslexia: A Positive Approach. Wiley, pp. 151-161.

Biography

Dr Katie Overy is a Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of the Institute for Music in Human and Social Development (IMHSD) at the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Overy takes an interdisciplinary approach to research, particularly across the fields of music psychology, music neuroscience and music pedagogy. She has co-edited several interdisciplinary special issues on the musical, rhythmic brain, including for Transactions of the Royal Society B (2015), Cortex (2009) and Contemporary Music Review (2009). She was the UK partner in the EC Marie Curie International Training Network EBRAMUS (Europe, Brain and Music) and was Visiting Professor in Music Education at Western University, Canada from 2014-6, where she led a new initiative, Musical Learning Across the Lifespan (MLAL), which brings together researchers and students from music, cognitive neuroscience and audiology.